Gov. Susana Martinez on Monday withdrew four State Fair Commission appointees from consideration by a legislative committee that is also looking into a controversial 25-year lease recently awarded at the State Fair in Albuquerque.

The surprise announcement came late in the day Monday and revealed a strained relationship between the Martinez administration and the Senate Rules Committee, which is charged with confirming many of the governor's appointees to state boards and commissions.

"This is rare," Albuquerque Democratic Sen. Linda Lopez said of the governor's decision.

Members of the Senate Rules Committee had spent most of Monday afternoon grilling two of the four State Fair Commission appointees about how much they had known prior to the commission's approval of the 25-year lease in late November and whether they had felt pressure from the Governor's Office to push the lease through.

With the State Fair Commission's decision, the Downs at Albuquerque won the right to manage a racetrack and build a casino at the state fairgrounds. The only other bidder, Laguna Development Corp., has since challenged the lease award.

Questions have dogged the awarding of the lease for months, with some State Fair Commission members expressing publicly that they thought the award was rushed and the process secretive.

A few legislators on the Senate Rules Committee contrasted the ongoing scandal with Martinez's mantra about her election as governor signaling a new dawn in New Mexico politics. The first-term Republican governor has often criticized her predecessor, Democrat Bill Richardson, whose administration was marred by a series of scandals.

"That's exactly what we're trying to get away from ... [and] she stands up and talks about corruption in politics," Sen. President Pro Tem Tim Jennings, D-Roswell, said of Martinez. "I have an obligation that this doesn't go on."

Added Lopez: "It smells. This smells very, very bad. It's disconcerting that one executive does it, and the next one starts down the same trail."

The Governor's Office returned fire Monday afternoon.

"The level of misinformation and political grandstanding during the committee hearing today was staggering," Martinez spokesman Scott Darnell wrote in response to legislators' comments. "The governor wants all of the facts and information to be available to the Senate, which will dispel their baseless and transparent political attacks."

Darnell went on to say that Monday's attacks were "designed to score cheap political points."

While mostly Democratic lawmakers took aim at Martinez, the approval of the 25-year lease has generated controversy from both Democrats and Republicans in recent months.

A Martinez appointee on the state Board of Finance resigned in November after he said he felt that Martinez was pressuring him to approve the deal. The Board of Finance approved the contract after the State Fair Commission gave it the thumbs up the same month.

Charlotte Rode, one of the four State Fair Commission appointees whom Martinez withdrew, said Monday that she thought the process was so secretive that she had to do her own research to discover relevant facts. She also said she was not given the opportunity to suggest changes to the contract. Two other appointees, Kenneth "Buster" Goff and Larry Kennedy, told state lawmakers Monday that they were each given that chance.

"I didn't feel as though I could make a decision without being educated," Rode said. "When you are appointed to a position, or when you are elected to a position, you should make your decisions based on facts and not based on relationship. If you depend on someone else to spoon-feed the information, you are basing that decision on a relationship. And I felt as though I needed to understand the facts."

The Senate Rules Committee recommended confirmation of Rode and another State Fair Commission appointee, Kenneth "Twister" Smith. Goff and Kennedy didn't fare so well. The committee sent Goff's name to the full Senate without a recommendation. Kennedy's appointment failed to clear the committee.

Minutes after the committee's decision on Kennedy, the Senate Rules Committee received a memo from Martinez withdrawing the four from consideration.

"Once that [protest] process is complete and all the available facts are public, the governor will resubmit her appointees for confirmation," Darnell wrote, referring to the process triggered by Laguna's challenge of the lease award.

In addition to the aggressive questioning of State Fair commissioners on Monday, one state senator called for the firing of the State Fair manager after he failed to appear before the Senate Rules Committee.

"I'll write the letter myself," said Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, referring to his demand that the Martinez administration terminate State Fair Manager Dan Mourning. Lopez said Mourning was notified of Monday's hearing last week.

Mourning did not return a phone call from The New Mexican seeking comment.

Contact Trip Jennings at 986-3050 or at tjennings@sfnewmexican.com.